


Dad's Not Home

by TobiasHawk1



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Gen, Nothing but angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 05:18:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11479425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TobiasHawk1/pseuds/TobiasHawk1
Summary: I made this on Father's Day a couple years back because I live off the tears of the people I hurt





	Dad's Not Home

She’s crying. It’s late at night- or early in the morning- and she’s  _crying_. She’s sobbing her eyes out,  _bawling_. He knows why. The words on her lips she’d repeated so many times over the passed few months wouldn’t bring her back.

“ _Mommy!”_ All she wants is her mother. All she wants is someone to hold her. The dog- it was  _Qrow’s_ idea to get a therapy dog- was barking just as loud, pacing frantic circles between his bed and her crib. He scratched at the rugged floor, stood up on hind legs to lick at Ruby’s toes before coming back to the bed and whining and barking to wake him. The world needs him- because these girls  _are_  his whole world now.

But he just can’t get up.

“ _I’m a coward_ ,” he thinks to himself, curling into a tighter ball and burying his face in his pillow. It’s just too  _much_. The dog and the child, both asking for something that he wanted just as desperately.  _They want the impossible_.

He thinks to her silver eyes, high cheekbones and silky smooth hair. He remembers the look on her face when he playfully reminded her to get home “soon.” She gave both her daughters a peck on the cheek- Ruby never even woke up from her nap, but smiled in her sleep- and gave him a more intimate kiss on the lips.

“I should be back in a week. Not sure how often I’ll keep in contact, but I’ll do my best, Tiger,” she flirted, standing on tip-toes to kiss at his jaw. That was thirty seven weeks ago to the date. Her lips, he warmth, her touch. He wanted that feeling back more than anything.  _She_  always knew what to do.  _She_  was their fearless leader. And now...

He tried to get up. He really, truly tried. But for the first time in his life, his strength failed him. His arms wobbled and collapsed, and he fell back onto the bed in a heap. He grit his teeth and tried again, but the effort was just too great. He hadn’t been out of bed in  _days_ , but he’d  _never_ ignored the girls before now. He  _couldn’t-_

The door creaked open, light footsteps made their way from the door to the crib. He could hear her struggling to reach over the bars of the crib. He held his breath-  _scared of what his own daughter might think of him if she knew he was awake_. He listened as Zwei whined, barking softly as he watched the blonde girl lift her younger sister from her crib. Yang cradled Ruby in her arms and rocked her ever so gently.

“It’s okay, Ruby. It’s okay... big sis Yang is here,” she whispered. Ruby’s crying wavered for a while as she fought for breath in between wails. He could hear his eldest daughter rocking her younger sister, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she hummed Ruby a nursery rhyme she’d learned from Summer. It took less than five minutes before Ruby finally stopped fussing. He could hear the change in her breath as she quickly fell asleep after tiring herself out. He listened as Yang walked away- still heavy with the weight of her sleeping sister- and walked to her room, Zwei hot on her heels. He listened as she closed the door behind her. He listened as they got into bed in the room across the hall, the sound of Zwei leaping onto the mattress almost drowning out the sound of Yang’s door closing.

He waited a long while. Twenty minutes? Forty? Making sure they were asleep- before crying himself.


End file.
